#OutbreakThursday

Outbreak Thursday is a series of weekly blog posts spotlighting an ongoing outbreak, an individual involved with outbreak responses or investigations, or other aspects of infectious disease preparedness and response. In addition to the operational research aspect of this project, Outbreak Observatory aims to be a source of information on ongoing and emerging infectious disease events and responses.

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The latest in a long history of influenza planning, the WHO’s Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 takes a more holistic and comprehensive approach to establishing global influenza preparedness and response capacity.

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The latest in a long history of influenza planning, the WHO’s Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 takes a more holistic and comprehensive approach to establishing global influenza preparedness and response capacity.

WHO has requested $148 million to fund the next six months of response operations as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to grow. This post discusses the importance of increasing financial support to enhance response efforts.

Venezuela’s political and economic crisis has fostered conditions favorable to communicable disease outbreaks, including measles, malaria, and HIV. We call attention to the spread of these diseases in Venezuela, and we examine the evidence of regional transmission.

For the first time since 2006, Indonesia has reported that two individuals have been infected with polio. This outbreak demonstrates the importance of vaccination and maintaining sensitive surveillance.

Globally, measles are on the rise. This post outlines two outbreaks from this past year, one in the Ukraine and the other in Madagascar. Both of these outbreaks illustrate how low vaccination coverage can lead to high case numbers.

Previous Posts

The latest in a long history of influenza planning, the WHO’s Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 takes a more holistic and comprehensive approach to establishing global influenza preparedness and response capacity.

WHO has requested $148 million to fund the next six months of response operations as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to grow. This post discusses the importance of increasing financial support to enhance response efforts.

Venezuela’s political and economic crisis has fostered conditions favorable to communicable disease outbreaks, including measles, malaria, and HIV. We call attention to the spread of these diseases in Venezuela, and we examine the evidence of regional transmission.

For the first time since 2006, Indonesia has reported that two individuals have been infected with polio. This outbreak demonstrates the importance of vaccination and maintaining sensitive surveillance.

Globally, measles are on the rise. This post outlines two outbreaks from this past year, one in the Ukraine and the other in Madagascar. Both of these outbreaks illustrate how low vaccination coverage can lead to high case numbers.

The WHO Emergency Committee convened in October 2018 to determined that the Ebola outbreak in the DRC did not constitute a PHEIC. Since then, the outbreak has tripled in size (now the 2nd largest ever) and expanded in geographic area, and some are calling for the WHO to revisit the PHEIC issue before the situation worsens any further.

A measles outbreak centered in Clark County, Oregon has already resulted in cases in two other states, including Hawai’i. This outbreak illustrates the risks posed by pockets of low vaccination coverage and the intense effort required to complete contact tracing for such a highly transmissible infection.

We provide an update to an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid fever in Pakistan. Cases have more than doubled since July 2018, prompting the WHO to issue new recommendations to contain the outbreak and prevent further antimicrobial resistance.

Recent estimates of cumulative hepatitis A cases nationally show the notable increase hepatitis A infections in 2017 and 2018 and the challenges in controlling outbreak-associated cases given the vulnerable populations at highest risk of infection.

This week’s Outbreak Thursday post reflects on a number of stories from this past calendar year. Join us as we look back on some of our coverage from 2018, and share some insights for the year to come.

According to the US CDC and FDA, eating raw cookie dough could land you on the Naughty List this Holiday Season. Uncooked flour and eggs could harbor E. coli and Salmonella, respectively, which could put a damper on your holiday festivities.

As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues, many outstanding questions remain about response operations and their impact as well as the barriers that remain to implementing effective containment strategies.

As the ongoing Ebola outbreak in DRC surpasses the 2000-01 outbreak in Uganda as the second largest ever recorded, experts are calling for additional resources and improved planning to address security and community engagement challenges to bring an end to the current outbreak and mitigate the effects of similar outbreaks in the future.

In addition to high-profile measles outbreaks, other vaccine-preventable diseases, including chickenpox, are making a comeback. An ongoing outbreak in North Carolina highlights the risks posed by low vaccination coverage in children.